Quack up in Iraq--civil war may have broken out yesterday, if not before

[prescole]

Shiites and Sunnis engaged in a small battle near Baghdad. This seems to be an ascalation of sectarian violence that increasingly resembles civil war.

If it looks like civil war, sounds like civil war, acts like civil war...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051027/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Insurgents using roadside bombs and small arms fire killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four, while clashes southeast of Baghdad between Shiite militiamen loyal to a radical cleric and Sunni militants left at least 15 people dead, officials said Thursday.

<snip>

The fighting between the Shiites and Sunnis occurred after cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Madhi Army militia raided a house in Nahrawan, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, to free a fellow militiaman kidnapped by Sunni militants, said Amer al-Husseini, an aide to al-Sadr.

All 15 killed were Shiite militiamen, he said, but did not know if the Sunnis suffered any losses.

The Mahdi Army freed the hostage and captured two of the militants in the raid, but was ambushed on its way out of Nahrawan, al-Husseini said. Nine people were also wounded, he said.

[second edition]

1. This all comes down to Bush's mishandling of this whole situation,

he fails to recognize that the Sunni's have legitimate concerns about their place in a new Iraq and they think the administration is working against their best interests. Bush has done very little to include the Sunni's in the whole voting and constitutional process. He also has not addressed the Sunni's concerns about our presence there and our ultimate goals for the region. Bush's answer is always the same, we use force and eventually, as the thinking goes, they will tire and accept the new Iraq and their place in it.

[Clark2008]

3. Hell, *I* have concerns about the Sunni's place in the new Iraq.

Afterall, under the tiny amount of Shi'ite rule we've thus-far seen, the country is going backwards in terms of civil rights for women and children instead of into a progressive democracy.

I realize that not everyone's democracy looks like America's (if, in fact, we even still have one), but, damnit, the women and children of Iraq deserve better than an extremist fundie Islam regime, no matter what label they stick on the ballot initative.

[madokie]

2. This 'moran west texas cowboy'

sure has created a nightmare. Where's the 700 club when you really need em.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Weren't those 2 British SAS guys dressed up like Sadr's Mahdi Army?

I remember reading that somewhere. Don't know who is who here.

Don